A registration method for improving quantitative assessment in probabilistic diffusion tractography

J L Waugh; John K Kuster; Miriam L Makhlouf; Jacob M Levenstein; Trisha J Multhaupt-Buell; S K Warfield; N Sharma; Anne J Blood

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.12.057

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A registration method for improving quantitative assessment in probabilistic diffusion tractography

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

A registration method for improving quantitative assessment in probabilistic diffusion tractography

J L Waugh, John K Kuster, Miriam L Makhlouf, Jacob M Levenstein, Trisha J Multhaupt-Buell, S K Warfield, N Sharma and Anne J Blood

NeuroImage, Vol.189, pp.288-306

2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.12.057

PMCID: PMC6790978

PMID: 30611874

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Abstract

Tractography

Registration

Dice similarity coefficient

Center of gravity

Longitudinal

Quantitative

Diffusion MRI-based probabilistic tractography is a powerful tool for non-invasively investigating normal brain architecture and alterations in structural connectivity associated with disease states. Both voxelwise and region-of-interest methods of analysis are capable of integrating population differences in tract amplitude (streamline count or density), given proper alignment of the tracts of interest. However, quantification of tract differences (between groups, or longitudinally within individuals) has been hampered by two related features of white matter. First, it is unknown to what extent healthy individuals differ in the precise location of white matter tracts, and to what extent experimental factors influence perceived tract location. Second, white matter lacks the gross neuroanatomical features (e.g., gyri, histological subtyping) that make parcellation of grey matter plausible – determining where tracts “should” lie within larger white matter structures is difficult. Accurately quantifying tractographic connectivity between individuals is thus inherently linked to the difficulty of identifying and aligning precise tract location. Tractography is often utilized to study neurological diseases in which the precise structural and connectivity abnormalities are unknown, underscoring the importance of accounting for individual differences in tract location when evaluating the strength of structural connectivity. We set out to quantify spatial variance in tracts aligned through a standard, whole-brain registration method, and to assess the impact of location mismatch on groupwise assessments of tract amplitude. We then developed a method for tract alignment that enhances the existing standard whole brain registration, and then tested whether this method improved the reliability of groupwise contrasts. Specifically, we conducted seed-based probabilistic diffusion tractography from primary motor, supplementary motor, and visual cortices, projecting through the corpus callosum. Streamline counts decreased rapidly with movement from the tract center (−35% per millimeter); tract misalignment of a few millimeters caused substantial compromise of amplitude comparisons. Alignment of tracts “peak-to-peak” is essential for accurate amplitude comparisons. However, for all transcallosal tracts registered through the whole-brain method, the mean separation distance between an individual subject's tract and the average tract (3.2 mm) precluded accurate comparison: at this separation, tract amplitudes were reduced by 74% from peak value. In contrast, alignment of subcortical tracts (thalamo-putaminal, pallido-rubral) was substantially better than alignment for cortical tracts; whole-brain registration was sufficient for these subcortical tracts. We demonstrated that location mismatches in cortical tractography were sufficient to produce false positive and false negative amplitude estimates in both groupwise and longitudinal comparisons. We then showed that our new tract alignment method substantially reduced location mismatch and improved both reliability and statistical power of subsequent quantitative comparisons.

Details

Title: A registration method for improving quantitative assessment in probabilistic diffusion tractography
Authors: J L Waugh (Author) - Massachusetts General Hospital
John K Kuster (Author) - Massachusetts General Hospital
Miriam L Makhlouf (Author) - Massachusetts General Hospital
Jacob M Levenstein (Author) - Massachusetts General Hospital
Trisha J Multhaupt-Buell (Author) - Massachusetts General Hospital
S K Warfield (Author) - Boston Children's Hospital
N Sharma (Author)
Anne J Blood (Author) - Massachusetts General Hospital
Publication details: NeuroImage, Vol.189, pp.288-306
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date published: 2019
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.12.057
ISSN: 1095-9572; 1053-8119
PMID: 30611874; PMC6790978
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Thompson Institute
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99639579102621
Output Type: Journal article

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Web Of Science research areas: Neuroimaging; Neurosciences; Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging

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